The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Programme in Kindergartens: Effects of a Universal Preventive Effort

The purpose of this study was to identify preventive effects of the Incredible Years (IY) teacher classroom management (TCM) programme, which is employed in Norwegian kindergartens for 3-year-old to 6-year-old children. IY TCM is a universal preventive intervention intended to reduce the frequency of inappropriate types of behaviour and support children’s social- and emotional competence in kindergartens and schools. IY TCM was implemented in 46 kindergartens and compared to 46 matched kindergartens that did not receive the intervention. A total of 1049 children took part in the trial, 511 from the IY TCM group and 538 from the comparison group. Children’s behaviours were measured using well-validated instruments at the beginning and end of a school-year cycle, approximately 9 months later. Findings showed promising reductions in aggression, internalising and attention problems, and increases in social competence in the IY TCM kindergartens. In a sub-sample comprising children who scored equal to or above the 90th percentile on aggressive behaviour before the intervention, promising developments were found in social competence among the children in IY TCM kindergartens. The IY TCM lead to promising preventive effects in young children’s aggressive behaviours, internalisation, attention problems, and social competence in kindergartens in Norway. However, even if the changes were statistically significant, effect sizes were small. For children with severe behaviour problems, few positive results were found.     

Conflicting but close: Readers’ integration of information sources as a function of their disagreement

According to the documents model framework (Britt, Perfetti, Sandak, & Rouet, 1999), readers’ detection of contradictions within texts increases their integration of source–content links (i.e., who says what). This study examines whether conflict may also strengthen the relationship between the respective sources. In two experiments, participants read brief news reports containing two critical statements attributed to different sources. In half of the reports, the statements were consistent with each other, whereas in the other half they were discrepant. Participants were tested for source memory and source integration in an immediate item-recognition task (Experiment 1) and a cued recall task (Experiments 1 and 2). In both experiments, discrepancies increased readers’ memory for sources. We found that discrepant sources enhanced retrieval of the other source compared to consistent sources (using a delayed recall measure; Experiments 1 and 2). However, discrepant sources failed to prime the other source as evidenced in an online recognition measure (Experiment 1). We argue that discrepancies promoted the construction of links between sources, but that integration did not take place during reading.     

Knowing where is different from knowing what: Distinct response time profiles and accuracy effects for target location,orientation, and color probability

When a location is cued, targets appearing at that location are detected more quickly. When a target feature is cued, targets bearing that feature are detected more quickly. These attentional cueing effects are only superficially similar. More detailed analyses find distinct temporal and accuracy profiles for the two different types of cues. This pattern parallels work with probability manipulations, where both feature and spatial probability are known to affect detection accuracy and reaction times. However, little has been done by way of comparing these effects. Are probability manipulations on space and features distinct? In a series of five experiments, we systematically varied spatial probability and feature probability along two dimensions (orientation or color). In addition, we decomposed response times into initiation and movement components. Targets appearing at the probable location were reported more quickly and more accurately regardless of whether the report was based on orientation or color. On the other hand, when either color probability or orientation probability was manipulated, response time and accuracy improvements were specific for that probable feature dimension. Decomposition of the response time benefits demonstrated that spatial probability only affected initiation times, whereas manipulations of feature probability affected both initiation and movement times. As detection was made more difficult, the two effects further diverged, with spatial probability disproportionally affecting initiation times and feature probability disproportionately affecting accuracy. In conclusion, all manipulations of probability, whether spatial or featural, affect detection. However, only feature probability affects perceptual precision, and precision effects are specific to the probable attribute.     

Group identity‐based self‐protective strategies: the stigma of race,gender, and garlic

We examine the importance of group membership in stigma and its role in the effectiveness of self‐protective cognitions in three experiments. In Experiment 1, men are asked to interact with an attractive female who will judge their value as a potential date, and either eat a mint or a clove of raw garlic prior to the interview. Although the stigmatized‐by‐garlic men discounted negative feedback and attributed it to their garlic breath, discounting and attributions were negatively correlated with self‐esteem. In Experiment 2, White participants were evaluated positively or negatively by a bogus partner who the participants believed had been told that the participant was either White or Black. Although participants receiving negative feedback engaged in several self‐protective cognitions, including attributing their negative feedback to racism, the strategies were uncorrelated with self‐esteem. In Experiment 3, women prepared to interact via computer with a partner who expressed sexist or non‐sexist beliefs. In the absence of feedback, self‐esteem increased when their partner was sexist. In contrast with the first two experiments, perceiving the partner as prejudiced was significantly and positively correlated with self‐esteem. Together, these experiments suggest that self‐protective cognitions find their effectiveness when stigma has a basis in group membership. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of Brazelton intervention: A review

This article reviews research that has used the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS; Brazelton, 1984) as an intervention. It discusses separately the various effects NBAS intervention has been found to have in areas such as parent-infant interaction, infant development, temperament, and parental attitudes and satisfaction. Inconsistent findings are noted in each of these areas. This article then addresses issues that may play a role in the effectiveness of NBAS intervention, including the risk status of the population, the intensity of the intervention, and the receptivity of the parent. It concludes by suggesting that realistic goals be set concerning the expectations for early, short-term intervention such as the NBAS.     

Male and Female Recipients of Unwanted Sexual Contact in a College Student Sample: Prevalence Rates,Alcohol Use,and Depression Symptoms

It is typically assumed that acquaintance rapeand other forms of unwanted sexual contact involve malesas perpetrators and females as victims. The currentstudyinvestigated prevalence rates of experiencing as well as instigating sexual coercion, force,and other types of unwanted sexual contact for both menand women in a college Greek system. 165 men and 131women (82% Caucasian) completed 2 gender neutral measures of unwanted sexual contact, as well asassessments of alcohol use, alcohol related negativeconsequences, and depressive symptoms. Results indicatedmen were as likely to report being the recipients of sexual coercion as were women in thissample, although women were more likely to be thevictims of physical force. In addition, both men andwomen in this sample who had been the recipientsofunwanted sexual contactreported heavier alcoholconsumption and related negative consequences than didtheir peers who had nothad these experiences. Men whohad been the recipients of unwanted sexual contactreported more symptoms of depression than other men inthis sample, but there were no differences in depressionsymptoms for women who did or did not report theseexperiences.     

Childhood behaviour and adult personality in male and female subjects

In a follow-up study, teacher ratings of behaviour at 13 years of age were analysed in relation to personality factors in adults (mean age 27 years) for a group of 77 male and 84 female subjects. In the male group, ratings of Aggressiveness, Motor Restlessness, and Concentration Dificulties correlated positively with a broad psychopathy-related factor. Furthermore, ratings of Timidity correlated positively with two anxiety factors. In the female group, ratings of Motor Restlessness correlated positively with an extraversion factor. The rated childhood behaviours and the adult personality factors were assumed to be a differential reflection of vulnerability to externalizing and internalizing psychosocial disturbances.     

What do you want? How perceivers use cues to make goal inferences about others

Variables influencing inferences about a stranger's goal during an unsolicited social interaction were explored. Experiment 1 developed a procedure for identifying cues. Experiments 2 and 3 assessed the relative importance of various cues (space, time, characteristics of oneself, characteristics of the stranger, and the stranger's behavior) for goal judgments. Results indicated that situational context cues informed goal judgments in ways that were consistent with diagnosticity ratings and typicality ratings of those cues. Stranger characteristics and stranger behaviors affected goal judgments more than would be expected from these quantitative measures of their informativeness. Nonetheless, the results are consistent with a mental model view that assumes perceivers monitor situational cues present during interactions and that goal inferences are guided by the informativeness of these cues.     

Association between polymorphisms in the dopamine transporter gene and depression: evidence for a gene-environment interaction in a sample of juvenile detainees

Previous research has generated examples of how genetic and environmental factors can interact to create risk for psychopathology. Using a gene-by-environment (G x E) interaction design, we tested whether three polymorphisms in the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1, also referred to as SLC6A3, located at 5p15.33) interacted with maternal parenting style to predict first-onset episodes of depression. Participants were male adolescents (N= 176) recruited from a juvenile detention center in northern Russia. As hypothesized, one of the polymorphisms (rs40184) moderated the effect of perceived maternal rejection on the onset of major depressive disorder, as well as on suicidal ideation. Further, this G x E interaction was specific to depression; it did not predict clinically significant anxiety. These results highlight the need for further research investigating the moderating effects of dopaminergic genes on depression.